


Friend for the Lonesome

by ontoxay (xaymak)



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), grieving things you didnt know you lost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27250336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaymak/pseuds/ontoxay
Summary: A boy, the moon, and a brother.
Relationships: Warriors & Wild (Linked Universe)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 154





	Friend for the Lonesome

Hino, the man who watches the moon with awestruck eyes, told him this: throughout all these centuries and centuries of history, the people of this kingdom have always looked at the same moon. Be they Zora or Goron, Gerudo or Hylian, even one of the proud Rito that soar through the skies, the same moon shines down on them. Isn’t there comfort in that? A strange peace that settles over the soul to know that your hearts are all connected, looking at that beautiful, ethereal moon.

At the time, Link had only smiled and hummed something that might’ve sounded like an agreement. It’s a nice thought, but one that was hard to share when the blood moon glinted red on Hino’s glasses. 

Now he’s Wild, and Wild finds himself staring up at every full moon with the same eyes as Hino. Pale and bloodless, the air fresh and clean under its beams, he can imagine all the lost eyes drawn to it over the millenia, all seeking for the same solace.

_The moon_ , Time claimed as the biggest thing he’s ever fought, and Wild sighs just thinking about it. Maybe he should’ve figured out how to do that himself, to spare his Hyrule the grief of losing such tranquility. The moon in Four’s land gleams, cold and bright, and he closes his eyes to it.

_You’re not going to cry over a stupid moon_ , Wild tells himself, and his treacherous breath hitches. He’s not. He’s _not_.

The pain stinging his eyes isn’t foreign. The strangest things grip his heart with a clammy hand he doesn’t ever recognize—the mourning of a dead boy, he’s come to realize. Did his eyes look up at the night sky for guidance a century ago, a year ago? When he was sixteen and not a hundred-and-sixteen, did he feel reassured, knowing the kingdom he was tasked to protect looked up to the same light?

Maybe he did. A hundred-and-seventeen years old now, and grief unknown runs down his cheeks. His stupid, stupid heart aches for the simple beauty that only a handful of people would be able to recognize in his world.

It’s just the moon. Pale, bloodless. Malice has never touched it, monsters have never risen under its light, yet the glow wrenches at him like it’s the first blood moon that greeted him on the Grand Plateau all that time ago.

“Wild, you need to stop taking the next person’s shift, you need sleep too…” Warriors’s sleepy grumble slaps him out of the moment, and Wild reaches up to scrub at his eyes, willing them to dry. “What if you collapse during the day or—have you been crying?”

The question comes out hushed for all that it’s alarmed. Wild shakes his head, not trusting his voice to not break. When he opens his eyes to look at Warriors, he almost cracks a smile. The captain’s face is lit white in the moon’s light, like he’s especially startled. Almost like a ghost, if it weren’t for the missing telltale teal tinge. He pats the rough bark next to him, and Warriors settles on the log warily.

Neither of them say anything, only the night carrying a conversation with itself with quiet snoring, the hoot of owls, a gentle wind that rustles through greenery and tugs playfully at his hair. Wild closes his eyes again. Even past his eyelids, white blooms like a drop of spilled milk.

Peace presses down on him like a physical weight—maybe this mourning isn’t of a dead boy, but wholly his own.

A shoulder bumps into his arm, lightly though not hesitantly. “Homesick?” Warriors offers, huffing when Wild shakes his head in reply. “Memory?”

It takes a few attempts for his voice to come out. “Not really.”

Warriors waits for him to elaborate. When Wild doesn’t, he sighs and carefully, palm sliding against Wild’s back in forewarning, slings an arm across his shoulders to pull him close. Wild falls into the half-hug without resistance, curling into the comfort of Warriors’s sleep-warm embrace. This close, this quiet, he can hear the other’s heartbeat under his ear.

“We don’t have to talk about it if that’s what you’d prefer,” Warriors says, low and soothing. Wild shrugs, shoulder awkwardly digging into Warriors’s side, but neither of them move away. There’s a sense of fragility to the moment he can’t shake that keeps him still, keeps him breathing in time with the chest against him.

Goosebumps prickle his arm as Warriors rubs in little circles. “Sorry for not waking you up,” Wild says. Though the spot they’re camping in tonight is speckled and bathed in parts with light, all he can see when he opens his eyes is the shadows of Warriors’s nightshirt. Between that and the grounding warmth seeping into his skin, he can feel his breathing even out. “Got lost in thought.”

“Of course you did,” Warriors teases. The mockery is undermined by the fondness sighing in his voice, and Wild relaxes even further when Warriors’s hand moves to comb through his hair instead. “C’mon, to bed with you.”

Despite his words, he doesn’t move to push Wild away, tucking him more firmly into his side for good measure. 

In the shadows like this, the gentle mocking of the moon no longer shining into his eyes, Wild smiles. A brother to lean against, the murmuring of the night in his ears—peace, one that can be found anywhere. A solace that is infinitely more sweet than a quiet moon.

He’s not sure when he dozes off, but a well wish reaches his ears right before sleep claims him. “Sleep well, Wild.”

And he does.

**Author's Note:**

> this was meant to be a different thing entirely lmao but when i got sidetracked into Angst i decided to cut it off at the head nd give wild some comfort. that's what brothers are for!!
> 
> saw a quote at some point saying the moon is a friend for the lonesome. its cool but do u know who else is a friend. warriors. i love him. im not quite sure on what the word simp means but im pretty sure im a warriors simp


End file.
